Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Just as UPSC aspirants are protesting against the unfairness
in the civil service exam, MBA aspirants should also protest against the
similar unfairness in the CAT and other MBA entrance exams, which can be taken
only in English. They should be available also
in Indian languages.

First, it is the issue of fairness. The difficulty level of
the Verbal Ability section of MBA entrance exams like CAT is very high. Those
who can crack such exams are mostly from convent schools and colleges, say, St
Stephen’s College, where the English language is not only the medium of
instruction but also a means of daily communication. They naturally get an
advantage over others who are not privileged even to have a modest upbringing.
The unprivileged MBA aspirants, therefore, either have to take coaching from
private classes by paying exorbitant fees or have to give up on MBA altogether.

It is generally argued that the companies that come for
campus placements want candidates who are ‘highly’ proficient in the English
language. It is sad but true that the language of the corporate India has
become English. However, the level of the English language required to crack
exams like CAT is far higher than the English that is actually used in the
corporate world.The corporate world’s
lexicon hardly has words like ‘post-structural deconstructionism’ or
‘antediluvian’ or ‘aficionado’, which an MBA aspirant is supposed to know to
crack the exams like CAT. To be able to survive or even to grow in the
corporate world in general, one requires only the working knowledge of English,
not the English which only English language nerds can understand.

I don’t have any problem with the English language. I have a
problem with the fake superiority status that has been given to it. Let English
remain just as the commonly used language in the corporate world.The working knowledge of the English language
should be enough to be able to communicate in English. The focus of the
corporate world should be on creativity and inventions.And everyone should be given the freedom to
create and invent in the language in which he or she feels at home. Truly
radical inventions can be made only in the language one is born in.

But sadly, the corporate world’s focus is hardly on
inventions. The hyper-importance given to English itself ‘speaks’ volumes about
the lack of focus on creativity. It indicates that the English language is used
merely as a vehicle to acquire the inventions in management that take place
outside India, especially in the US and Europe. We are dependent on the Western world not only
for getting business but also for knowledge.We take pride in working for the MNCs, for which we emphasize the need
to have a very good command over English.In fact, we should take pride in making the MNCs work for us and know
our languages.

Our elite B-schools are mere placement agencies. Knowledge
creation is not their focus. Their focus is to create just corporate babus whom
the multinational companies use only to get their less important work done.